Monday, June 24, 2013

NYC - Walking and Eating

We've been wanting to take Noah to the city for a while now. So we decided to pick a Friday, Chris would take the day off from work, and we would go in for the day. So I had the brilliant idea to go on the First Day of Summer! Thankfully, the weather forecast said it was going to be amazing, so we started planning what we wanted to do. I thought it would be fun to go to a playground and push Noah on a swing, and Chris suggested walking on the High Line. So I researched parks, and picked Madison Square Park. I was sold on it when I saw that there was a Shake Shack in the park... it doesn't take much for me, just burgers and frozen custard! Chris did some research and found a parking garage that was located on 22nd street halfway between the High Line and Madison Square Park.

We left our apartment after breakfast and got into the city around 10 AM. We made the walk over to the 23rd street entrance of the High Line. There is usually an elevator at that entrance, but as we learned before, it was damaged during Sandy and still hasn't been fixed. Thankfully, we knew this ahead of time and we were prepared for Chris to carry the stroller up the stairs and for me to carry Noah. We ended up walking about 75% of the High Line and stopped a lot for pictures, to feed Noah, and to try all the yummy food! Who knew there were so many food options on the High Line... I know I didn't! Noah even made a friend while he and Chris were waiting for me to get back from the bathroom. He was giggling non stop at this French (well we think she was French) lady. It was so cute since normally Noah just stares at strangers without even cracking a smile.

After spending the morning on the High Line, we made the walk from 10th Avenue to 5th Avenue for Madison Square Park. It was already 1 PM at this time, so we decided we'd eat Shake Shack first before heading over to the playground. We walked into the park and were immediately met with a line a mile long! Noah had fallen asleep on the walk over so we figured what's the harm in waiting. About 5 minutes into waiting, a shady spot on a bench opened up, so I went to sit down with Noah, while Chris stayed in line. Chris was in line for an hour! During that time, Noah woke up, flirted with the girl next to us (he's becoming a real ham!), had a bottle, spit up, had his diaper and outfit changed (it's not that easy on a park bench!), spit up again!, and then entertained himself by chewing on my water bottle.

Meanwhile, Chris had the boring task of standing in the super long line, without anything to drink. Even though I had to entertain Noah for an hour, I definitely think I got the better deal! While in line, some Shake Shack staff handed out sunglasses... apparently they had tweeted that to celebrate the First Day of Summer that they were giving out 250 sunglasses at 1:30 PM. Photo Op!

Finally, we got our food and it was worth the wait! We had cheeseburgers, french fries, and some "Hopscotch" Concretes (vanilla custard with caramel sauce, chocolate toffee, and dark chocolate chunks... amazing!). We even let Noah have a couple of french fries so that we all got to enjoy Shake Shack!

Noah was the BEST baby all day! Even with an hour car ride into the city, walking all over the place in the sun, eating his lunch on the High Line, having his diapers changed on park benches, and having to nap in his stroller. Despite all of that, he always had a smile on his face. What pushed him over the edge? We wanted to take a picture of him wearing the Shake Shack glasses... he did not like it at all! He instead just wanted to chew on them.

And on that note we decided we had kept him out in the sun long enough and to just head home. He fell asleep within 2 minutes of being in the car... I think we made the right decision! We had an amazing day in the city and I'm so glad to be able to take Noah out and have these fun adventures as a family!